Ballerina World

Ella has been dreaming about the day she would be on stage again in the Nutracker pretty much since September when she found out that she made the cast.  She's been practising with the rest of the cast since September every Saturday, and finally last week had a dress rehearsal and two performances in the Saturday and Sunday matinee shows.  It was exciting but also very tiring. She did great though, along with the rest of the angels. I was blessed to be able to volunteer in the dressing room and help the beautiful angels with costumes and make-up. Ballet moms' work is no piece of cake. We did hair, make-up, dressing and undressing galore! I loved it though, just to be around these beautiful hard working children who all became friends, played together for hours before having their turn to get on stage, and did a wonderful job out there.

I will let the pictures tell the story of the Nutcracker this year. There's three days of dress rehearsal and performances in here...

Hair:

 

 

 

(Ms.Cheryl and then Ms. Hina did a great job on the ringlets.)

 

Make-up:

 

 

Dressing room:

With her friends, Lexie, Mizuki, and Sophia

 

 

 

 

Ready to go on stage:

 

 

Rehearsing under Mr. Michael's watchful eye:

 

 

 

 

 

 

First performance: ready to go on stage, final check up by Ms. Dianne's:

 

Backstage: music is on, waiting for the special effects/fog to go and... SHOWTIME!! :)

 

 

 

(Although I didn't get to watch Ella from the audience, I was so excited to watch her perform from backstage. That backstage is a little bit of a magical place, you know. You get to see what all goes into a show, really cool!)

Dearest friends, Andrea and Shu after the show:

We are truly so blessed to have them in our lives.

 

Not only they are always there for all our big and small events, but they made us a delicious dinner after the performance (guacomole and turkey burgers, all from scratch.)

 

 

We contributed to the feast with our "Kingdome of the Sweets" cake whipped together in like 5 minutes. Not kidding.

 

Ella was exhausted and very high on sugar! She had been up since seven, went to the ward Christmas breakfast to meet Santa, then to her hair appointment, and after a quick lunch, off to the theater to get ready (two and a half hours before the show.) After dinner, we headed out again for her and I to watch the show.

 

 

 

During intermission:

 

 

[We had to leave a little early as poor baby got a very runny nose and sneezing, most likely an allergic reaction to something. Good thing that I had the benadryl with me. It was no fun to end the day that way but we accept it as part of our life and deal with it. (You know, I really do hate allergies!!!!)]

 

Coming home to a very sweet surprise again from Shu and Andrea made for a great finish of a great day though. They brought her this beautiful Clara nutcracker to accompany the one we had bought at the boutique that evening.

 

One happy little bunch!

 

 

We are so proud and honored to have seen Ella work so hard for this performance and watch her do so well on stage.  We love you baby!!!